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True Crime

The latest True Crime news comes from Rolling Stone magazine, which scored an interview with infamous cult leader/serial killer Charles Manson. But the really big news is that Charlie’s headed to the altar! At least that’s what his self-proclaimed fiance “Star” told the magazine.

“I’ll tell you straight up, Charlie and I are going to get married,” she tells us. “When that will be, we don’t know. But I take it very seriously. Charlie is my husband. Charlie told me to tell you this. We haven’t told anybody about that.” (Rolling Stone, 2013).

The kicker, and you know there is a kicker in any story about Manson, is Manson’s response to the magazine asking him about the marriage: “”That’s a bunch of garbage. You know that, man. That’s trash. We’re just playing that for public consumption.”

Star is a pretty 25-year-old who’s been visiting Charlie at Corcoran Prison, where he is serving a life sentence, since she was 19, the article said. Although she bears a striking resemblance to deceased Manson girl Susan Atkins, known as Sexy Sadie, Star said she is nothing like Atkins. “She was fucking crazy.” (Rolling Stone, 2013)

Star’s not lying, there, since Atkins was one of the five Manson family members who killed actress Sharon Tate and her friends in a bloody attack at the actress’s home in 1969. Atkins also took part in the murders of the LaBiancas. But her claim to fame came after she was arrested and blabbed to cellmates about the Family and their nefarious leader. The cell mates, terrified, reported to authorities what Sexy Sadie had told them and, like a house of cards, the Manson Family collapsed as one by one, the main game players were arrested and sentenced to the death penalty. Their infamy lives on, all these years later, to the point that young women still devote themselves to Charlie.

I’ve found many people still believe Charles Manson is in fact innocent, or that he at least doesn’t deserve life in prison (he was initially sentenced to the death penalty, but the death penalty was repealed in California in the 70s, so Charlie serves life in prison now, despite several colorful parole hearings). A little reading of the facts of the case show that Charlie’s not just in prison for the Hollywood murders of Sharon Tate and friends, he was also found guilty of murdering others, by his own hand. It’s a moot point, in a way, since Manson has had no problem admitting (at times, then denying) his role in the killings. Unfortunately, he is one charismatic crazy man, and evidently, still able to hypnotize and draw close young women.

Check out the rest of the article at the link below. Charles Manson’s colorful life is always interesting, even when he’s supposedly sitting behind bars, waiting to die.

Publisher R. J. Parker recently released an excellent anthology of true crime stories written by some of the best current true crime writers, like Michael Newton, Peter Vronsky, Silvia Perini, Dane Ladwig and Parker himself.

I’m a picky true crime reader, as you might imagine, but this book delivers. Well-written stories about some well-known serial killers and some you might not be familiar with. A must for any true crime collector, I would say.